Leslie Herod began her political journey at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she said she thought she’d be a cheerleader. She quickly learned there were few people who looked like her and began to recognize severe inequities at the flagship university.
So, she did something about it.
Herod worked with a group of progressives from many different student organizations. At the time of the CU student government elections, her alliance included members of the Black Student Alliance, Muslim Student Alliance, the Jewish Student Organization, Umas y Mexa and others.
Their coalition, which included current U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, Steve Fenberg, Lisa Kaufmann, Sergio Gonzalez — grandson of Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez —and Herod won every single office that was open, she said.
“These are people who I’ve worked with on a lot of things,” she said. “I’m proud to have their support in this campaign and we are lucky to have the support of each other as we worked to transform Colorado for the better.”
During her time in CU student government, Herod supervised a $36 million budget and gained valuable experience she’s used in her time as a state representative, she said. Now she’s vying to be Denver’s first female mayor as Michael Hancock faces term limits after 12 years in office.
Denver’s challenges are quite well-known. Herod, who has served in the General Assembly since 2017, says she understands the issues, in some cases better than her opponents.
Recently, candidate Kelly Brough told 9News’s Kyle Clark she would arrest people violating the urban camping ban, and who refused services, if elected mayor — but only as a last resort. Herod said she does not think the city should imprison someone just because they cannot afford a home.
“It costs more to incarcerate someone than it does to get them housing,” she said. “We know the sheriffs are understaffed and underfunded. We know they don’t want to be a de facto mental health facility, they’ve said that, and I don’t think the people of Denver want that either.”
Rather than imprisoning Denver’s homeless, Herod said the city must ensure the housing stock can meet demand. The city needs approximately 50,000 more units to meet that demand, Herod said/ The units don’t always have to be high-rises.
She pointed to an example in the Park Hill neighborhood: The area at East 23rd Avenue and Dexter Street. There are single family homes, a smattering of apartment units, a coffee shop and sit-down restaurants all on the same block. The area features easy access to transit and a level of density Herod believes the city can work with.
“If we had more diverse housing stock in all of our neighborhoods, more density, more walkability, our communities would be better off for it,” she said. “(But) it’s so expensive to live there. Why? Because (those apartments are) the only ones like it.”
But challenges exist. The city’s permitting department has been described by other candidates as “broken” because of long delays issuing building permits and performing inspections. While Herod didn’t go quite that far, she acknowledged there are serious issues that must be addressed.
First and foremost, Herod wants to empower individual employees as the final say in approval or denial to “get desks clear.” The employees cannot make progress if they are drowning in a stack of forms. This has hurt Denver’s business community and the housing stock overall, Herod said.
“Too many people are exiting their projects out of Denver and that does not help with our affordability crisis,” she said. “We have to empower all of our people to make decisions and make them final.”
One of the questions on the campaign trail has been cost. Denver authorized spending a quarter of a billion dollars, $254 million, on homelessness in Hancock's 2023 budget. The state has allocated $700 million into affordable housing. Herod called this a “pretty solid number,” but added there’s more out there.
One of her criticisms of the Hancock administration has been the lack of lobbying for affordable housing dollars both at the Denver statehouse and in Washington D.C. She wants to change that and has already worked with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and elected officials in Washington. One solution she sees. working in places like Houston, is a mass influx of housing vouchers, which Herod said could take the anxiety out of living in Denver.
But housing and homelessness aren’t the only thing driving anxiety. Public safety has been at the forefront of the mayoral race since the beginning.
While candidates like Trinidad Rodriguez and Andre Rougeot call for an expansion of the Denver Police force, Herod doesn’t see that as the best course of action. She’d rather see a more effective use of existing resources, while adding more co-responders and expanding the Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) program.
STAR provides emergency responses to individuals having crises relating to mental health, poverty, homelessness and substance abuse.
“In partnership with the community, we created STAR... STAR should be 24/7, with reasonable response times,” she said. “It should be the city’s responsibility to make sure the right responders are available for the right issue.”
Though not an advocate of expanding the police force, Herod wants to get the public safety arm of the city back up to pre-pandemic levels — which may require a retooling of the budget.
While homicides in Denver were lower in 2022, an unfortunate trend emerged: More young people were getting involved in violent crime. Just last week, one East High School student was shot as he sat in his car. Denver Police arrested two suspects, but the victim, a 16-year-old boy, remains in critical condition.
“Our youths are scared right now, they’re going to school armed because they don’t feel safe,” she said. “I think we need to rethink and reanalyze why our youths are not utilizing the recreation centers as they used to be.”
Denver youth ages 5-18 are eligible for the My Denver Card, which grants them free access to recreation centers, swimming pools and other facilities. This opens the door to free activities at many locations after school, over weekends and during summer breaks, according to the website. It also allows access to free books at Denver libraries and free admission to cultural venues.
“I love the My Denver Program and I believe it worked for some time, until COVID hit,” she said. “We need to get back to making sure that the rec centers do focus on our youth.”
